Dr Watson, Mr Sherlock Holmes
by KCS
Summary: Written for differing LiveJournal communities, various sentences depicting moments in the lives and friendship of Dr. John Watson and Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Non-slash, no particular order, some obscure Canon references. Third table added.
1. Table Epsilon

#01 – Motion

The lulling sways of the railway compartment were conducive to introspection, and for the remainder of the journey they remained in peaceful contemplation – Watson, wondering what in the world he would be doing with his life had he not met Sherlock Holmes; and Holmes, shying away from the very thought of continuing this dark case alone.

#02 – Cool

His new fellow-lodger still seemed to be continuously chilled to the bone, though winter 1881 was not severe; therefore somehow he involuntarily formed the habit of popping upstairs to see that the Doctor had not thrown off his blankets while dreaming of deserts and blood.

#03 – Young

The bets among the Inspectors, regarding how long it would take for the detective to drive his new fellow-lodger either out of the house or out of his mind, ranged from one to ten weeks – but none were more surprised than Holmes himself when they all lost.

#04 – Last

Each story lingered wraithlike in his mind, but the last line of the last tale haunted like none other – for how would he ever explain to the author that the "best and wisest man he had ever known" had deceived him – such a ghastly lie! – for so long?

#05 – Wrong

Watson wrote down the Baskerville case a resounding success; but Holmes could not deny the knowledge that he had bungled the affair in London, deceived his closest friend for months, and nearly lost his client due to his negligence in accounting for fog and horror.

#06 – Gentle

Kneeling before his wife's three-year-old gravestone, he wondered absently how a grip that had reshaped a steel poker could in contrast be so gentle that he barely felt it through the shoulder of his jacket.

#07 – One

Fighting for his life against Gruner's thugs left him little time for thought, but he did realise one sad truth before the world darkened: that he really _was_ lost without his Boswell.

#08 – Thousand

After he expended some boredom in reading up on the Afghan War and the Battle of Maiwand, the fond – and nearly literal – expression _one-in-a-thousand kind of chap_ suddenly sickened him with might-have-beens.

#09 – King

To be defended by Sherlock Holmes against a King's wishes for privacy was worth far more to him than the blank cheque left upon the table at the nobleman's departure.

#10 – Learn

He had never been struck so horrifically with the reality of his friend's injuries as when one lazy evening, after Watson had longingly run a reverent finger over the Stradivarius's finish, he impulsively asked if the Doctor had ever considered learning to play and was answered with the bitter "I can't hold it."

#11 – Blur

Seeing the figure opposite his consulting-desk, his first thought was that of being haunted; his second, that no ghosts need apply – madness, then; and his last, that if a ghost or delusion could feel as real as the gentle hands that leapt to catch him when he fell, then he did not much mind either possibility.

#12 – Wait

He arrived home well past midnight, sopping wet and chilled to the bone – but Watson's thoughtfulness to keep his purple dressing-gown by a re-built fire made him smile even more than the fact that the Doctor was currently rattling the gas-jets with his fireside snoring.

#13 – Change

It was interesting to Lestrade, who had known the infernal amateur longer than the others, how the pattern of Holmes's introduction of his flat-mate went from "My colleague" to "My dear friend and colleague," apparently without either of them knowing how or why.

#14 – Command

The weeping, mist-shrouded man was centered in his air-rifle sights before he realised he could not – _would_ not – shoot a fellow soldier who had also just lost a comrade and superiour officer.

#15 – Hold

An overly-vivid imagination remained whirring even during slumber (there was a reason he never slept in front of another), and neither of them would quite forget the first time Holmes fell asleep in a train compartment, exhausted after a long and dangerous case.

#16 – Need

He was not offended when Watson peacefully fell asleep halfway through his newest violin composition; after a troubled night and painful day, the knowledge of having eased both was far more rewarding than admiring applause.

#17 – Vision

In Holmes's nightmares, Evans's bullet severed the femoral artery; in Watson's, Gruner's thugs targeted the head – and neither needed to question why the other was sleeping in a chair across the room the following mornings.

#18 – Attention

When, after a long day at his surgery, Watson was accosted by a coarse loafer who volunteered to carry his thirty-pound surgeon's bag, he was too relieved to be offended or to wonder at the sudden appearance – and he never noticed that disguise buried amongst Holmes's wigs and greasepaint.

#19 – Soul

Whole-heartedly grateful but astounded to see Holmes leading the rescue party (for days the man had been wretchedly ill with a virulent influenza), he only laughed at Holmes's smirk and pert "Miss me?" and then dived to catch the detective when he finally fainted.

#20 – Picture

His flawless memory having always made photographs superfluous, he kept only two in his entire life – one upon the mantel, one upon his desk – of the two people he respected most in all the world.

#21 – Fool

"You would be a fool to not accept the knighthood, Sherlock," Mycroft had exclaimed, and Watson agreed emphatically from the hospital bed; but the idea of his receiving a national honour and his friend only a bullet-wound was entirely incompatible with his conscience.

#22 – Mad

When Lestrade heard someone had agreed to lodge with Sherlock Holmes, he wondered if the fellow were raving mad; when six weeks later the Doctor remained ensconced in Baker Street he suspected the same; and when, six months after, he ran into the two of them strolling through the park arm-in-arm, he knew for certain.

#23 – Child

Bedtime stories were for children, he insisted weakly, being temporarily invalided by a virulent influenza; but the next morning he was forced to admit there were many less pleasant ways to fall asleep than listening to Watson's naturally calming voice.

#24 – Now

Sherlock Holmes was stunned to discover that, for the first time in his adult life, someone had actually remembered – much less purchased him a gift for – his birthday; and watching the man tear into the package, flinging paper all over the hearthrug, his new flat-mate chuckled and only wondered why the detective was blinking so furiously.

#25 – Shadow

While he had always been partial to black himself as part of a sharply-dressed gentleman's wardrobe, the severity of its unbroken adorning the cuffs and clothing of his dearest friend turned him cold and sick despite the spring sunshine.

#26 – Goodbye

He had thought that, by departing London without a word, he was making the transition as painless as possible; but when a saddened Watson appeared at his cottage the following evening he realised it might be more painful _not_ to say goodbye.

#27 – Hide

When following three months of complete abstinence a bleak failure drove him back to the Moroccan case, he hid in his bedroom afterwards like a little boy having broken a mother's vase – not realising that forgiveness was more readily available than reprimand.

#28 – Fortune

His services to the French government left him with enough funds to retire, and Sigerson's guise required none of it; Watson attributed his investments' sudden leap in value to luck, never to Mycroft Holmes's influence.

#29 – Safe

Despite the pain and blood-loss he reached Baker Street ahead of his assailants, his last conscious thought being relief that his flat-mate was a doctor as skilled with a revolver as with a bandage.

#30 – Ghost

After Lestrade came by one evening in '94, bringing Continental news of finally locating the remains of Professor James Moriarty, Watson did not bother to change into his night-clothes but waited sadly for the sounds below of an unconscious struggle against a ghost.

#31 – Book

Watson would never know the true reason behind Holmes's detestation of the _Strand _stories: that he could not endure seeing a brilliant man reduced to a gullible foil.

#32 – Eye

Hopkins arrived on the scene barely in time to contain the melee; apparently when their suspect had knocked the Doctor down with a well-placed blow, Holmes had enforced the creed _an eye for an eye_ a little too literally…

#33 – Never

He had seen war-comrades massacred, lost every family member prematurely, participated in the Ripper investigations, met death at every turn with a respectful conscience and firm control – but not now; no previous horror could compare with not being able to find the body of his closest friend.

#34 – Sing

Watson disliked Wagner, Holmes loathed Gilbert and Sullivan – but both soon learned that experiences shared were not at all unpleasant.

#35 – Sudden

Holmes's disgusted loathing of the _Strand_ stories was evident; but when one foolhardy client made the mistake of critiquing them in the detective's presence, he discovered (painfully) that Sherlock Holmes was the _only_ man who was permitted to openly mock the Doctor's writings.

#36 – Stop

The "You, a doctor! You are enough to drive a patient into an asylum!" had hurt, but Watson could not know he had shouted the first frantic thing that popped into his head – for his friend was two seconds from opening Culverton Smith's box, releasing the infected spring.

#37 – Time

As the days turned into months and then melted swiftly into golden years, Holmes gradually realised that his financially necessary flat-mate had turned into an ally and then a comrade, then a companion and after that a friend – and all without the world's foremost observer being fully aware of the fact.

#38 – Wash

Watson did not realise just how close the call had really been, until a week after the fact he was woken from morphine-induced slumber to discover a white-faced, half-asleep Sherlock Holmes at the closest water-basin, trying frantically to scrub invisible blood off shaking hands.

#39 – Torn

He _wanted_ to hate the woman, he truly did, for he well knew how lonely he would be – but he could never be spiteful to someone who made his friend so inexplicably happy.

#40 – History

History repeated itself in those February 1919 midnights, when Holmes found himself emptying his heart into his aging violin to banish khaki-clad ghosts and the whine of intangible shells.

#41 – Power

When Watson and Mary had their first tiff, the temptation to encourage breaking off the engagement was compelling; but he recognised the value of what he could not comprehend, and only sympathetically pushed Watson out the door to go make matters right.

#42 – Bother

Innately brutally honest, Holmes had never dreamed his words could be offensive nor had he ever considered it necessary to apologise – this new friend of his was teaching him more than just that admiration was a novel, pleasant sensation in a world disinterested by his genius.

#43 – God

Sherlock Holmes had rarely considered believing in a Deity, but in four years he spent more time in a small Sussex church than he had in all his life, wishing the stained-glass could block the sound of Zeppelins, and praying for the safety of one soldier among thousands.

#44 – Wall

For years, Mycroft Holmes had observed the fortress within which his younger brother castled himself, but now marveled at how one man could be permitted not only to enter the citadel, but also to begin methodically tearing down the walls.

#45 – Naked

Mycroft Holmes had seen his brother laugh, cry, and go through all other emotions just as any normal child had done – but never had he perceived such naked horror in the younger man's eyes as when the statistics, but no specifics, came in for the Battle of Flanders.

#46 – Drive

When Watson's new motor-car broke down and forced him to stay at the cottage two days longer, he was only too glad to spend the extra time with Holmes; though he might not have been so pleased had he discovered the handful of wires stuffed in the detective's desk-drawer.

#47 – Harm

Neither would ever forget the first time Watson killed a man – Holmes, for gratitude that his new friend's reflexes had saved his life that night; and the Doctor, for the guilt that followed a broken oath.

#48 – Precious

Sherlock Holmes cared little for most of his possessions (as evidenced in the bizarre locations in which they would habitually turn up) – but when one of the Irregulars laid a grubby finger on the 1887 _Beeton's_ _Christmas Annual,_ the child was reprimanded sternly and the volume placed carefully back on the shelf above the monographs.

#49 – Hunger

Mrs. Hudson fussed and scolded, but her pleading fell upon apathetic ears; evidently with the Doctor's departure for a well-deserved holiday had also gone Mr. Holmes's already-sporadic appetite.

#50 – Believe

He had suspected Holmes's conclusions were embarrassingly mistaken long before Lestrade's lucky guess proved it; but he stuck by the detective's side and then shouldered half the failure – neither his friend nor the police would ever know if Dr. Watson less than wholly believed in Mr. Holmes.


	2. Table Gamma

_More of the same, from a different prompt table. And all plot bunnies are fully up for adoption. :)_

* * *

#01 – Ring

Watson is deathly nervous, he can see; and so, when the clergyman requests the symbol of the vows, he fumbles frantically in his pocket, then produces the ring safely and meets his friend's momentarily panicked expression with a smirk that relaxes them both.

#02 – Hero

Neither realised the spreading impact of the _Strand_ until, strolling through the park one day, they were amused to discover a group of children "playing detective" under a tree bearing the pencil-scrawled placard _221B_ _Bakur St._

#03 – Memory

After escaping journalists by ducking into a Strand café, when an enterprising young fellow snapped a photograph of them eating luncheon they finally visited the _Globe_'s offices – Holmes, to give a resurrection statement; and Watson, to locate the young man and see if he could purchase the photograph.

#04 – Box

When, in the early days, Watson dared to skeptically challenge his new flat-mate's ability to box proficiently, each learned a valuable lesson: Watson, to never again question Sherlock Holmes; and Holmes, that this soldier's right cross more than made up for his nearly-useless left shoulder.

#05 – Run

He is too busy running, running for his life as Holmes commanded, to realise until it is too late that the man himself has dropped behind, to distract their pursuers and put some distance between their clubs and his limping flight.

#06 – Hurricane

After a Channel squall had finally passed over (whirlwinding away some shingles and one of his precious bee-hives), he was awakened next morning by the puttering of Watson's infernal motor-car and the simple, sheepish explanation, "The 'phone lines were down...I was worried."

#07 – Wings

The motor-car had been bad enough, and though he grumbled about the Doctor's speeding he approved the 'car as he did anything Watson begged for in that particular tone – but he drew the line when he was asked over the telephone if he would like to go _flying_ in one of those new-fangled _aeroplanes_.

#08 – Cold

After being favoured with the tale of the _Gloria Scott_, Watson had thought never to see the fascinating contents of that trunk again – but one winter night, miserably abed with aches and chills, he was surprised to see Sherlock Holmes bringing up some hot broth and a sheaf of characteristically-scrawled documents.

#09 – Red

He was, always had been, always would be, ruled by logic and logic alone; why then did it take Lestrade's knocking him upside the head with a nearby book to make him release the throat of the man who had attacked a doctor – and a recovering war veteran, at that – while on an errand of mercy?

#10 – Drink

One look at the half-conscious figure huddled on the darkest part of the stairs was sufficient to deduce this had been the third patient this week lost in the scarlet fever epidemic ravaging London's children, and that he might be needed tonight for more than just procuring strong coffee and dry clothing.

#11 – Midnight

Their trans-Continental journey traces an all-too-familiar route; when for the third haunted night they awaken each other (and the neighbouring compartment) struggling with an invisible enemy, a mutual decision is made, and when the train stops to fuel in the heart of Switzerland Holmes wires their client that a small detour will cause a few days' delay.

#12 – Temptation

In the end, it is not medical lecturing, coaxing, pleading, or even explosive anger that prevents Holmes from taking the morphine that night – but rather the knowledge, after hearing ghostly cries of re-lived horrors from upstairs, that he is a coward to escape his mind while other men remain to fight their own.

#13 – View

As they watch for the signal-lamp from Miss Stoner's bedroom window, Watson believes him to be pondering the night's case – but he is not; he is pondering its possible consequences on the only person he has ever met who apparently will, quite literally, follow him to the gates of Death itself if he so asks.

#14 – Music

His finances being stretched thin, and Holmes apparently oblivious to both their failing healths, he is therefore surprised one morning to discover two reservations for a Brighton hotel tucked in his medical bag, while from behind him a still half-asleep Holmes mischievously plinks out "I Do Like to Be Beside the Sea."

#15 – Silk

Looking sharp as a needle-tip had been ingrained in his head from childhood as an absolute, not a preference; and he had never given his public dress habits a second thought until Watson's half-shy inquiry for his advice on a suit choice, prior to meeting Miss Morstan for dinner.

#16 – Cover

Their vigil is long, and during the frostiest hours of an October night; and so eventually he falls asleep shivering, only to wake at Holmes's urgent prodding and find himself (and his revolver) tangled comically in the detective's Inverness.

#17 – Promise

He had taken many oaths in his life – to _do no harm_, to _serve Queen and country_, to _love_ _and cherish_ – but it broke his heart in 1914 to be incapable of promising to_ come back _when Holmes implored him to.

#18 – Dream

What has changed, he is not quite sure, nor when and how; but when he visits one evening and is greeted not with sardonicism but an amicable "Evening, Inspector; won't you join us for dessert?" – not from the Doctor, but from _Mr._ _Holmes_ – he wonders if the man has been sneaking that cocaine despite his promise of abstinence.

#19 – Candle

"Only children sleep with lights on!" was his weak protest, after the third midnight in succession where he had woken his fellow-lodger with muffled screaming – but either the cozy glow, or the fact that the Doctor thought no less of him for allowing it, was illuminating enough that no ghosts dared apply for the remainder of the night.

#20 – Talent

The sole _exasperating_ characteristic, he thought, that the Doctor possessed was this disgusting ability to walk into a room and locate within ten seconds that elusive item for which he had spent the last _five hours_ demolishing the neighbourhood to find.

#21 – Silence

He had always relished uninterrupted time for introspection, reveled in the beauty of silence and what wonders his mind could invoke with it – but that first morning, he found he could concentrate on nothing save hoping that the newly Mrs. Watson would make certain the Doctor bundled up against the wet.

#22 – Journey

He traveled far in three years, but no location produced the same combination of horror and homesickness as did standing on the desert plains of Afghanistan – imagining a ten-year-old battle, and just as quickly trying to forget what his memory could all too easily recreate based upon snatches of half-heard nightmares long ago.

#23 – Fire

The morning _Herald_ screamed the news – that he was quite literally burning all his bridges behind him – and he knew, sadly, undoubtedly, that there would be no returning from this case.

#24 – Strength

"He's taking Watson," Moran reported, and he cursed Holmes for his selfish whims; soldiers and doctors were trained for dutiful death, friends _volunteered_ for the same – and radical factors could not be eliminated without imbalancing his precisely calculated equations.

#25 – Mask

Lestrade was certain that whatever they'd been doing there, it hadn't been the murder; but he could never prove it, and frankly had no desire to try – and so he left the shred of black silk on the hall table, rather than attempting to match it with the bits he spied burning in the fireplace.

#26 – Ice

While they rarely argued past agreeing to disagree, when they _did_ have a row the grudges cut deep and rankled for days – and so it was with greater dismay than usual that their tensely silent journey to a client's home was impeded by a lame horse, forcing a six-mile walk together in freezing rain.

#27 – Fall

Growing older had never seemed so terrifying as the afternoon a telegram to his cottage informed him that the Doctor had taken a bad fall in his consulting-room that morning and would be laid up in bed for a fortnight – but he wasted no time in wishing for the past; he had a valise to pack.

#28 – Forgotten

It was not until, after returning Pompey and going back to the inn, he found Watson's bedroom door locked from the inside and strangely heart-twisting sounds emerging through the thin wood, that he realised in sickening dismay the similarities between his friend and the young man they had just come from seeing.

#29 – Dance

"Am I so repellant to you?" Mary Watson had coaxed mercilessly, and after a good deal of spluttering (Watson had not helped, merely grinned and urged them on) he swallowed his pride and animosity for a waltz – and somehow never found them again afterwards.

#30 – Body

He warns his new flat-mate that the gore-splashed room will not be pleasant to a shaky nerve (even Gregson is twitching with the horror of it); but he is surprised to see quiet determination submerge the indecision, and when the man follows him despite the warning he realises this fellow is made of sterner stuff than he had at first surmised.

#31 – Sacred

When just after his miraculous resurrection London was (ironically enough) terrorized by a sudden resurgence of body-snatching, it took no more than the desperate horror in Watson's eyes and the jet gleaming at his cuffs to drive Sherlock Holmes into halting the desecration in time so record it astonished even his brother.

#32 – Farewells

When the newlyweds arrived in Paris, only to find their reservation had anonymously been upgraded to the most luxurious suite in the hotel, Watson recognised it for the gift it was – one final gesture from a man who had eight hours ago stammered damp-eyed that he had no idea what to say besides congratulations, and goodbye.

#33 – World

When he returned home one rainy evening and found Watson sitting with a map of India, surrounded by a crescent of unkempt little boys eagerly hanging onto his tiger-hunting story, he only grinned and, nudging the closest one, joined the semi-circle despite the Doctor's sudden embarrassment.

#34 – Formal

The Watsons had been as wary of inviting Holmes as he had been about accepting, but after the detective had been coaxed from his corner for a game of charades and ended up captivating his audience with sheer dramatic talent, he for the first time in his life thanked his host for the evening, and meant it.

#35 – Fever

When Watson sent round a note to Baker Street, informing them he had treated a highly contagious patient and would therefore be spending the night in his surgery, London's keenest observer took no more than one glance at the increasingly shaky penmanship before bellowing out the second-story window to startle a passing cabbie.

#36 – Laugh

Unaccustomed to hearing aught but three-year-old ghosts each night, when she this time was woken – not by phantom violins or half-remembered voices, but by a crash and not-entirely-sober laughter – she remembered the unbelievable events of the spring evening, and returned to sleep smiling.

#37 – Lies

Holmes's explanations for his 'defensive' actions at Reichenbach (Patterson had informed him that the entire gang had been apprehended save Moriarty, and they had seen only one man following them) possessed more holes than a sieve; but he was too ashamed, and Watson too kind, to uncover the truth.

#38 – Forever

Two wars and an enthusiastic lifestyle having eventually taken their toll on an old man's heart, only nine years after the Armistice Holmes found himself again all alone in his cottage; and when during one sleepless night he realised why Watson had written those stories after 1891, he determinedly took up his pen to complete the half-finished _Case-book of Sherlock Holmes_.

#39 – Overwhelmed

Many wondered why the _Strand_ stories lost their quality in later years, but only Holmes knew the real reason – and even he did not discover it until, finally bringing himself to sort through his late friend's effects, he found a half-finished manuscript roughly entitled _Sherlock Holmes: A Complete Biography._

#40 – Whisper

As the street quiets, Holmes silences even their whispers, despite three years of missed conversation; but through the next hour he smiles sadly when he feels a tentative hand occasionally brush his arm as if to reassure that he is not a delusion.

#41 – Wait

After the novelty of receiving a gift from someone other than a great-aunt had stunned Holmes speechless that first year, Watson then found it increasingly difficult to wrap the parcels sufficiently that a twenty-eight-year-old child would not be able to peek into them before Christmas morning.

#42 – Talk

When Netley asked him just before the Boer War to deliver a lecture on field surgery, he was touched by Holmes's attendance – but when, during a description of bone-sawing, the detective turned the colour of congealing porridge and stumbled hurriedly from the lecture hall, Watson realised that now _he_ was not the one in need of the moral support.

#43 – Search

When unfortunate events landed them both in the Serpentine, ruining Watson's fountain-pen and Holmes's tobacco-pouch, the Oxford Street emporium's clerk was much entertained by each sneaking in at separate times in search of replacements for the other's prized possession.

#44 – Hope

Though his younger brother's help with the Room 40 project was certainly one of England's greatest War resources, during lengthy department meetings Mycroft could only moan inwardly and hope that the powers-that-be would not notice Sherlock's attention drifting from state documents to a War-Office-censored letter stealthily pulled from his inside jacket pocket.

#45 – Eclipse

Just as his adherence to the Ptolemaic theory had been proven erroneous, so did his belief that his superior gravitational attraction made him the centre of his own little universe – for he discovered to his dismay that this unassuming Miss Morstan somehow was receiving the majority of Watson's admiring attention tonight.

#46 – Gravity

When, despite the sobriety of the social gathering, Mycroft Holmes discovered his brother and the Doctor sniggering behind their champagne at heaven-only-knew-what (or whom), he sighed and made a mental note to inform the visiting Minister that such behaviour certainly did _not_ run in the family.

#47 – Highway

It had been a tragedy of errors: the message headed to him at Tibet delayed by mountain blizzards, the political state of Mecca and Khartoum too volatile for communication, and the missive to Montpellier slowed by a circuitous route to slip past Moran's eagle-eye; he was horrified to learn the news a good five months too late to reach London in time for the funeral.

#48 – Unknown

"Why didn't you take me with you!?" he managed to ask when Holmes's pain-hazed eyes finally fluttered open in hospital; but when the detective only smiled grimly he realised he had just answered his own question.

#49 – Lock

It had started with a tin of sweets, innocuously enough (after one of the Irregulars had sneaked fifteen and been sick in the settee), and over the years other items accumulated in that drawer of protective self-restraint – Watson's cheque-book, for one; and the cocaine-bottle, for another.

#50 – Breathe

The hidden knife had been too quick for either of them to react; but it was not really a desire to live that kept him straining for fiery splinters of air, but the knowledge that if he stopped Holmes would likely follow him into the next life, after hanging for murder.


	3. Occasions Themes

_More of the same, for a different community. Chronological order. And all plot bunnies are fully up for adoption. :)_

* * *

#01 – Anniversary

He is prone to vanishing for days on end himself, and thinks no more of the Doctor's absence that night until it occurs to him that the man has no other friends (if he can be counted in that category) in London, and that this is July 27.

#02 – New Year's

They had met just a week after the holiday festivities that first year, and were close enough friends by the next to enjoy them; and while the Doctor had anticipated greeting the New Year with a champagned evening before the fragments of the Yule Log, he supposed ducking through alleyways in pursuit of a cat-burglar was equally diverting.

#03 – Halloween

He should be used to Holmes's twisted humor by now, but when they are separated one foggy night while searching for clues in the small country graveyard, and something cold and clammy grabs his ankles, his embarrassment at screaming is (thankfully) covered by Holmes's howl of pain in receiving a boot to the face.

#04 – Firsts

The moment he deduces just what Roylott has in that safe, he is forced to resist an impulsive urge of panic to drag Watson from the house – because facing ruffians in London's slums is one thing, but he knows that he could never ask the man to follow him into a death-trap as that room will be tonight.

#05 – Middles

When his harsh words are somehow smoothed over into a more civil inquiry, and his hitherto stubborn witness finally cooperates with the Doctor rather than with him, he suddenly realises just how valuable this partnership might be, and sits back to listen and observe.

#06 – Lasts

After four years, he thought he knew the Doctor well enough to predict his moods – but when he woke one evening after three days of half-consciousness from blood-loss, and was promptly given the worst verbal thrashing of his adult life for his foolhardiness in going alone, he somehow knew it was the last time he was going to take the man's temper, or his loyalty, so lightly.

#07 – Nostalgia

They had spent many pleasant stormy nights safely snug before the hearth, but his favorites had to be those precious few when he would relate an early case or two; for who would _not_ be flattered by such a competent story-teller as his friend listening with such rapt attention to his own, admittedly clinical, account?

#08 – Rendezvous

When they bumped into each other in the dark and scuffled for a moment before identification, Holmes only grinned, saying great minds thought alike; and Watson gingerly rubbed his arm, wishing he'd paid more attention to those baritsu lessons his flat-mate was so fond of demonstrating.

#09 – Death

The barrister's letter came while Holmes was on the Continent chasing a French forger, and he was sadly relieved that he needn't explain why he chose not to wear mourning for a brother who had destroyed the family name and fortune (yes, he was fiercely patriotic, but he'd entered the army initially for the unfortunately simple reason of financial difficulty).

#10 – Life

Though when he'd met the Doctor, his first impression was that of greeting a ghost, over time the man had mostly recovered; however, despite his initial misgivings about this budding romance, he was forced to admit that nothing _he'd_ ever done or said had produced such a glowing love of life as this unassuming blonde enchantress was evoking.

#11 – Birthday

The Doctor spent more time in Camberwell than Baker Street those holidays, and he retaliated quite bitterly, departing London on a case without informing him; but when Watson reproachfully appeared in his French hotel, and he detected a feminine hand in the _two_ neatly be-ribboned packages, he grudgingly admitted while Watson might not understand his reactions, That Woman certainly did. (1)

#12 – Wedding

He had helped his friend pack, straightened his neck-tie, slipped a letter into his valise, made an anonymous donation to the struggling medical practice, handed over the rings, carried the entire role off with cool aplomb – but when Watson turned from the waiting carriage, wrung his hand, and then awkwardly pulled him into a one-armed embrace while whispering a thank-you, the fissure in his composure became a chasm.

#13 – Spring

It took over a year of coaxing, pleading, even good-natured threatening, but he did finally consent to going to Kensington for dinner one balmy evening when he'd absolutely nothing else to do; the cocaine's allure somehow seemed tarnished, haunted by the gentle voice of protest he heard only in his head.

#14 – Summer

The trials of the century dragged on endlessly, for Moriarty's web had included friends in high places; Lestrade and the other Yarders began to worry about the Doctor, when he lost all the weight he'd gained upon his marriage to his good wife; and, buried in Florence, Sherlock Holmes finally realised that this deception he intended was not, as he had hoped, going to last only a few months.

#15 – Fall

He in heart-felt sympathy watched as, about the time the leaves began to turn and drift away, his friend's wardrobe changed from stiff black to an appropriately dark brown in chromatic harmony with the cycles of life.

#16 – Winter

Mr. Mycroft Holmes scandalized the entire the Diogenes Club that Christmas Eve by laughing uproariously, when his little brother appeared to rudely shove a brightly-coloured card into his hands, all the while glaring icicles at his companion's stern face and muttering about foolish traditions and mawkish sentimentality.

#17 – Morning

After being rousted from warm sleep at an unearthly hour, he wondered on his way up the steps to cautiously awaken a cranky physician, if the stairs had always been so steep, or if he were merely growing old – and did Watson feel the same, climbing them day after day?

#18 – Afternoon

He was more aware of the world around him than the readers of his stories (or Holmes, for that matter) believed, and he knew times were changing, Time itself waning from a gaslit age into a bright new century; and with only two choices presenting themselves, retreat or acceptance, he knew eventually they would have to decide upon one or the other.

#19 – Evening

They had argued the question for weeks, Holmes's fear spurred into urgency by the Gruner and Garrideb cases, and Watson's initiated by knowing how the detective reacted to boredom – but neither would yield, and neither were entirely in the right; and so they parted, amicably but firmly, promising to keep in touch and waiting to see if the decision had been the right one.

#20 – Author's Choice, Rebuild

It took sixteen years, countless telephone conversations, and one far-too-close call on a war-mutilated continent, before they were reunited; and as the world, still reeling from the widespread destruction, began to rebuild upon the firm foundations of what had stood the death-winds of war, so did they.

--

(1) Baring-Gould places Holmes's birthday in early January (Twelfth Night, I believe), and while I seriously doubt the chain of reasoning behind it there's no reason to mess with an established theory.


End file.
